An account of the wildlife I come across and hopefully pictures to bring the account closer

Saturday, 23 June 2012

Saturday 23rd. June 2012

The plan was to do the High Elms butterfly transect this morning , but , since the time , I have felt cheated by the weather , especially the wind , when photographing the Glanville Fritillary the other afternoon , so , after dropping Carol off , I went back to the site . I returned to the same area , but

there was no sign . I extended my search which did produce my first Ringlet of the year , looking very fresh in the early sunshine , but no Fritillary . Another movement turned out to be a Silver Y

moth , shivering as it tried to warm up , no doubt wishing it had stayed on the continent . I even started looking at plants as there was so little about , and found several specimens of Hoary Plantain /

Plantago media , with it's colourful pinkish-lilac stamens . Then , just as I was about to give up and

move on , in a spot very close to where I saw the other specimen , the same , or another Fritillary was warming up for the day . Once again , the wind was making things awkward , blowing vegetation around , and although I kept willing it to do so , it just wouldn't fold it's wings and show the

underwing . So , it was down to lying down on the wet vegetation and trying for the best shot available . Once again , it was the only one I saw , but at least I had 5/6 minutes , before it was warm enough and flew off . Moving on to High Elms , I started the transect in reasonable conditions , but once again , it was very wet underfoot , and from the few sightings in the unfenced Conservation Field , it appeared that things hadn't improved much over the week since the last transect . On the way up to Burnt Gorse , just one Orange Tip caterpillar was showing , but from the size of this one ,

the other could well have pupated , hopefully not having been predated . Burnt Gorse itself was very quiet , with just a few butterflies recorded , but the hoverfly Volucella pellucens , with it's white

cummerbund , and one of the biting horse-flies , I believe it to be a female Tabanus bromius , but as

always , stand to be corrected , supplied some interest . I tried to move around to get her multi coloured eyes in the sunlight , but it was having none of it , and flew off . I did find a fifth Bee

Orchid , which definitely wasn't showing last week , with one of it's flowers just opening from bud ,

soon it will be open in all it's glory like the others . The small glades only held

the odd Meadow Brown - pictured , and a first Ringlet of the year for the site , this one settling with

wings closed to show the underwing . On the way back to the car , a Speckled Wood flew across my

path and posed , what else could I do ? The totals recorded were , Meadow Brown (28) , Common Blue (2) , Speckled Wood (4) , Ringlet (3) and Large Skipper 1 , still terribly low . Within sight of the car , I met a chap who was looking for Orchids , and stopped for a chat . He had seen all the species that I had come across , then mentioned a 'strange one' that he had found . He described it , and it sounded very much like the Yellow Birdsnest . Fortunately he had a camera and had photographed 'some of them' . Sure enough , it was Yellow Birdsnest , so I asked how many he has seen , '5 or 6' was the reply . I asked him where he had seen them , and he described the path where I had photographed it last week , but further off the path . Lunch went on hold , whilst I returned to the area . After a bit of searching , I spotted three plants , and after much more , found at least 20 plants ,

although a few were damaged , probably slugs or snails . Great find , but more butterflies would be good too , as I have Kent Butterfly Conservation coming to visit in four weeks time .

Well done with the Fritillary again Greenie. Also on the Yellow Birdsnest. It really is the most curious looking plant and very easily overlooked I should think! The Bee is definitely my favourite orchid, really lovely.